Quad Split Screen or PIP?

[michaelbaribeau]

I'm looking for a freeware video editor where I can do a quadcam kind of thing not as a preview but as the final edit with 4 different video sources/files in a four way split screen, quad split, multiclip split, whatever.

Michael

[edDV]

Quad Split is so 70's

What are your sources?
What is the destination?

Is this a 4x live feed?

[michaelbaribeau]

On youtube barbershop singers are doing multitracks where one individual records themself singing each of 4 music parts and then combines them onto one track along with the 4 different webcam shots of them singing, each part in a corner of the screen. below is a link to a short clip I selected at random...

http://youtube.com/watch?v=t73QZu5rizs

I'm trying to figure how to reproduce this video effect with freeware.

Michael

[poisondeathray]

You can do it with avisynth (free), but if you are new to it, the scripting and learning curve is quite steep

For the basics, start here, and the "split screen" section is relevant to what you want
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic99389.html

For more reference, start here
http://avisynth.org/mediawiki/Main_Page

Good luck

[manono]

As poisondeathray says, AviSynth is free, but not all that easy:

A=AVISource("C:\Path\To\Video1.avi")
B=AVISource("C:\Path\To\Video2.avi")
C=AVISource("C:\Path\To\Video3.avi")
D=AVISource("C:\Path\To\Video4.avi")
X=StackHorizontal(A,B)
Y=StackHorizontal(C,D)
StackVertical(X,Y)
LancosResize(640,480)#or any other resize you like

You may have to crop away black bars (or even add some, like that video), resize differently, or maybe filter the thing in other ways (deinterlace?), but that's the basic idea.

[edDV]

Vegas and Premiere can do it as well (including zooms into place).

There are also hardware boxes that do this for as little as $250 from composite inputs.

[michaelbaribeau]

Thanks guys, I'll check these out!

Michael

[michaelbaribeau]

hm, been reading up on avisynth and not sure is it lets me make a copy I can load to youtube...

"Avisynth is a scripting language and a collection of filters for simple non-linear editing tasks. Avisynth is unusual in that it does not generate output files. Instead, Avisynth scripts, which have the extension .AVS, can be opened directly in applications which read AVI files. When an AVS file is opened, Avisynth runs in the background, generating video and audio data according to the script and feeding it to the application as needed."

Michael

[poisondeathray]

Heh. Don't say I didn't warn you Keep on reading those links...

It's not as simple as point and click. It's like an intermediate set of instructions that use to encode something. When your script is ready, you can preview it with a media player; However, you still have to "feed" it into an encoder to get an output file.

Much easier to do in Vegas or Premiere (but costs $$$, unfortunately)

[michaelbaribeau]

I do a little website programing (mostly cut and paste) so am not totally intimidated but I still don't understand if it will let me copy the project with the effects in a format I can upload to youtube. If it's a dead end I'll have to explore those free trials.

Michael

[poisondeathray]

You can output any format you want. It depends which encoder your feed. The avisynth script (.avs) file is just a set of instructions that tells the encoder what to do.

Manono gave you a sample script. Just copy & paste that into an .avs file (using avsedit), but editing the paths & filenames (of course you need avisynth installed, and avsedit installed beforehand)

Then open the .avs file with any encoder. You can change the settings, quality etc.. to whatever you want, but Youtube usually re-encodes all uploads anyways....

I hope this kind of makes sense...It took me a good few hours to figure the avisynth basics out - but it was a worthwhile endeavour since it's such a powerful (free) application. If you don't have that time, maybe exploring those trials is not a bad idea

Good luck

[manono]

...but I still don't understand if it will let me copy the project with the effects in a format I can upload to youtube.

All my YouTube videos are made from AviSynth scripts frameserved into VDubMod. Out pops the XviD which I then upload for YouTube to ruin.

You make a text file that you then rename as an .avs. Video.txt becomes Video.avs. Open it up and add in the script. Try something simple first. If you have an AVI as a source, then use just one line inside:

AVISource("C:\Path\To\Video.avi")

Save it and open it in VDub(Mod) just as you would any video. If something's wrong you'll get an error message. Build your script from there. Maybe add in a deinterlacer. Maybe crop and resize. AviSynth has many filters included. In addition there are many more third party filters written by a bunch of dedicated AviSynth enthusiasts. There's a learning curve, but once you overcome it you'll wonder how you lived so long without it. And as poisondeathray says, there are also outside programs like AvsEdit that make scripting much less painful.

[michaelbaribeau]

Facinating stuff, I can't wait to play with this! Thanks a lot gang!

Michael

[michaelbaribeau]

I picked up a couple more suggestions from another group I thought I'd share...

You can do this with the free open source 3D app... Blender
http://www.blender.org/

...

WMM does split screen effects. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRuF5aL8djk
was done with Windows Movie Maker.

Go to video transitions and then Split Vertical to accomplish the
above.


Michael

[michaelbaribeau]

I was wondering about the wmm split screen. So, it will let me set up the horizonal split first, then set up for verticle split for the other 2 clips for a quad screen effect, and then render?

Michael

[michaelbaribeau]

Oh, and I just found this option from another newsgroup...

Picture In Picture - Feature question - does ZS4 do it?

http://www.zs4.net/

With the x-stretch and y-stretch, you'll be able to resize your clip, then use the vertical position and horizontal position to place them where you want.

http://www.zs4.net/picture-in-picture-feature-question-does-zs4-do-it


Michael